Uncut screenplays a big draw at Chennai book fair

Chennai: Famous American film director Stanley Kubrick once said, "If it can be thought or written, it can be filmed." At the ongoing 48th Chennai Book Fair, there is a surge in cinema enthusiasts, film school students and aspiring filmmakers to purchase uncut screenplay books of famous Tamil movies.Madurai native Krishna Kumar A, 24, whose curiosity for Kamal Haasan movies was piqued by his father, a hardcore fan, always enjoyed writing movie scripts. "And for the past three years, I've been coming here for books related to screenwriting and technical aspects of filmmaking. So far, I've purchased books on Akira Kurosawa and Intertextual Cinema. I have screenplay books of ‘Pisasu' by Mysskin, ‘Saani Kaayitham' by Arun Matheswaran, and ‘Chithha' by Arun Kumar."In the same stall, film school student Yogesh Kumar V picked up ‘Character Matters' by Sai Vijendran to better understand character building and arcs. "I watched ‘96' as a teenager and wondered how a movie can feature a passive protagonist, with melodrama built around his past feelings for a girl. I hope to find answers here."There's a steady stream of visitors in the 16-35 age group, said Thaha M of Pesamozhi stall. "Being exclusive stall for cinema-related books, screenplay combos of Lokesh Kanagaraj including ‘Managaram', ‘Karthi', ‘Master', ‘Vikram' and ‘Leo', Vetrimaran's ‘Vadachennai', ‘Asuran' and ‘Viduthalai' Mysskin's ‘Pisasu', ‘Nandalala' and ‘Yutham Sei', are among the bestsellers," he said. The combo prices start at 1,700.Shameer Ahmed, another film school student, came for books explaining shots in movies by Quentin Tarantino, Christopher Nolan, Ingmar Bergman and Akira Kurosawa. "I bought The Pervert's Guide to Cinema by Slavoj Žižek."